Splatter's a surprisingly tricky arena horde shooter with lots of strange and intriguing visual distortion effects that blur the line between "stylish" and "fugly" in a way that, surprisingly, really works. Splatter has a style - that much is for sure, but it's hard to put into words, and I don't think it can be described as "pretty"- nor is that what it's aiming for.

If you were assessing the game unfavorably, you could say that "Oh, it's just another game with a glitch aesthetic"- but I feel like the cause and effect are different here. Splatter looks like that because it very distinctly focuses in on broken, or scammy technological detritus in its thematics, rather than only the "made-ness" (and unravelling) of the game itself. I called it "viruscore" to a friend once, and that seems to fit the bill.

It's also fairly challenging. Simple to pick up, hard to get good at. It's made me sweat a good bit!

And the story is...

...the story is...

...

the story... is...

-I think I'll let you see this one for yourself. This review's spoiler-free! Congratulations. If I had to circumscribe my thoughts on it though, I'll do so by saying that one of the main devs of this thing and I had a very interesting conversation about modernist literature in their Discord! That's all.

No doubt about it, Splatter is worth a play. Original and fresh, it's a wild ride with engaging combat throughout. Especially as a debut game from a team of seven, this slime-soaked shooter impresses. Xenial it's not, despite its collage of familiar sights and sounds from internet culture. It blasts players with pulse-pounding music and psychedelic visuals until they've had their fill. The only way out is through.

Full review: https://finalweapon.net/2022/12/17/splatter-review-style-substance-and-sartre/